To the Amiga community in general
Everyone knows that the situation of the Amiga is now critical. Due to the
lack of commercial strategies and (very often) because of bad= luck (
example : the lasting of negotions between Viscorp and the liquidator of
Escom ) the Amiga is now really late, if compared with other competitive
machines.
Yet, solutions exists. It is still possible to prove that the Amiga can do
serious applications, stunning multimedia softwares and especially amazing
games. In this particular domain, we saw that the Amiga has several
problems. One of this problem is the speed of the Motorola 68000
processors on Amiga computers which never went over 50 Mhz, ( compared to
the speed of Pentium for example ) and another problem is the lack of
chunky modes in the AGA chipset.
These chunky modes allow on other platforms high end quality games, such as
Doom, Duke Nukem, and Quake for the most popular, and we must recognize
that these games increased drastically Pc sales. Well, why not doing these
games for the Amiga ? We all know the problem of Planar pixel, poor AGA
bandwidth etc... etc... Several tries were done. With the first Alien
Breed 3D, it was attempted to create real chunky pixels using the copper of
AGA, but we realised that the resolution of the screen was sacrified. So,
converting the whole screen from chunky to planar in real time appears to
be the only solution. If it allows great resolutions ( just look at
Breathless or TKG to be convinced ) , it unfortunatly requires a high speed
CPU to do the conversion properly and quickly.
Well : here are data for the problem
- No Chunky mode to do great games
- Most of the Amiga users having at least a 68030/50 Mhz CPU with AGA
- Some (not lots of but they exist ) game designers willing to support the
Amiga
There's an existing solution, but it costs a lot. It is to buy Amiga
graphic cards and to develop great games for these cards. But graphics
cards are not cheap, and for all A1200 users it involves buying a Tower and
Zorro slots, what is also more expensive.
Then, no solution ?
This great problem CAN BE SOLVED !
And we want to insist on this fact : a solution exists and MUST be used to
save the Amiga.
This solution is the GRAFFITI CARD.
This card , by only plugging in the RGB port of ANY Amiga, allows a fast,
real and NECESSARY chunky mode to OCS/ECS or AGA.
There are many evidence of its efficiency :
- some users use graffiti modes in their emulation of APPLE Mac ( such as
Shapeshifter or Emplant Lite ). Starting with a 68030/50 Mhz CPU, DOOM,
MARATHON, WARCRAFT OR THIS KIND OF GREAT GAMES WORK PERFECTLY WITH AGA !
Thus we can imagine, what could be special optimized games in native Amiga
code for the Graffiti modes !
- some Amiga games and demos using the Graffiti card already exists : you
can find NEMAC IV ( which is furnished with the Graffiti ) and Trapped, two
Doom like games, and it's only a beginning. They are working perfectly in
full screen, 1 x 1, with a 68030 CPU !
- The graffiti only costs 59 , 100 $ , 140 DM or 550 FF
This survey was made for 2 reasons :
- if you're working in a game development company : supporting the Amiga or
not please consider using this card to create or to port Pc games, as it is
done for Mac. Consider also that with the Graffiti you can cover a large
market : not only AGA Amiga, but ALL the Amiga, from the A500 to the A4000.
- if you're a Amiga user : if you're not convinced by what we say, please
get information on the Graffiti, speak about it with friends, ask on IRC
channels ( such as #amiga ) etc... If you're convinced, then you must have
already the card plugged in your computer !!
Please, transfer this survey to ANYone you think who can be interested in
this card. ( Having a chunky mode should be the most interest of any Amiga
users ! )
Thank you for your cooperation.
Survey made by the Amiga Community of Montpellier (south of France).
Please read and visit the magasine Amiga Forever site
WEB http://www.mygale.org/08/AFE
e-mail afe@www.mygale.org
To order the Graffiti card :
contact Blittersoft, 6 Drake Mews, CrownHill Industry, Milton Keynes
MK8 0ER UK
Tel : +44 (0) 1908 561297 Fax : +44 (0) 1908 261488